Occasionally here at CleaningProductsWorld Blog, we will have a guest blogger. Through Twitter, I came into contact with a wonderful woman named Hyla who writes an extremely informative blog about living an eco-friendly blog. She is a 24 year old mom with 3 kids and a 4th due June 4th. She blogs about her green journey, green products, life with her kids and more. You can read her blog at GreenEarthJourney.
I asked Hyla to write about why she became interested in a green lifestyle and below is her response.
“My journey began 2 years ago. My daughter was a couple of months old and my son was about 1 3/4. These two are the reasons for my journey. Of course I have my eldest son Celtic, but there was never really a time in the beginning of his life when the light bulb flashed on in my head like with my two youngest.
Sheamus at one year old, a couple of months before Guinevere was born, was admitted to the hospital with the beginnings of pneumonia. It was an extremely stressful time, Celtic was 5 and I was getting heavily pregnant, the only one that could stay there full time was my husband and this required taking time off of work. Sheamus was scared to death as they had him hooked up to an oxygen machine that kept losing his reading and beeping really loudly. He was there for 3 days, I think, and no one got any sleep. After that he was never really quite the same, he now has seasonal allergies as well as exercised induced asthma. Whenever a cold hits, we had to immediately take him to the doctor to start him on some strong antibiotics. He usually went from runny nose to “coughing so much he can’t breath in less” than 24 hours.
I started noticing that his breathing would act up when I would light candles or incense in the house. And worse after I would clean. Then I noticed after I would vacuum with the carpet freshener powder, that Sheamus would get choked up and my husband would get a really bad headache. That is when I started doing research online and looking for alternatives.
All of these causes were connected, the cleaning products, the candles, the carpet freshener. They all have horrible chemicals in them that stay in the air long after you have used them and you are breathing them in and they affect your mood and the way your are breathing. I found simple, easy, and natural alternatives to cleaning products, vinegar, water and orange peel anyone? Soy candles with cotton wicks and baking soda with essential oil for my carpets. And I will tell you what, everyone’s health improved. Celtic stopped bringing home as many colds from school as usual, Sheamus went from using his nebulizer nightly to only when he was sick. Even my husband who usually had a cold back to back to back went 6 months without getting sick!
And the cost of making these products was nickels and dimes compared to dollars and dollars every week. The pride to provide my family with healthier living and knowing that I was the one doing it, feels amazingly awesome.
July 26th 2007, Guinevere Rose Waldron is born. Red hair and pale skin, our first daughter! Rosey red cheeks! It turns out Guinevere has eczema on her face, it is usually very dry and itchy. The doctor gave us a prescription cream for her face. I started to use it, I use it every time her cheeks flare up or start to itch, which was about every 2-3 hours. A week went by and her skin is completely cleared up as long as I used the cream, if I missed a couple of hours, her cheeks are back to being red, scaly and itchy. We went back to the doctor for a check up and he asked how the cream was working, I told him it was working great I was using it often during the day and it seemed to be working.
He looked at me and asked, how many times during the day, I responded with about 4-6 times. And he said, Oh you can’t do that, you can only use it once a week really. If you use it more than that is will change the composition of her skin.
I respond with What?! I am not sure I heard you correctly….. “It will change the composition of the skin on her face if you use it more than once week”. I walked out with my kids with a look of complete shock on my face. How dare they give me a cream that WILL.CHANGE. THE.COMPOSITION. OF. MY. BABIES. SKIN!!!!
What are they thinking? So I go home and chuck the remaining cream in the tube. My husbands asks what I am doing and I tell him what the doctor said. He is in shock, to say the least. I hop on the internet determined to find a natural cure for my baby. I come across Lavender essential oil which is good for just about everything. I decide from now on I will add one drop of essential oil to her bath(kitchen sink) water. This is just an experiment but I consider the alternative and well, do I really have a choice? In my mind, I don’t and essential oil is natural, from the Earth.
We dive in and try it, giving her a bath every night with the added essential oil to her bath water. There is a difference even the first night. Her cheeks are still read, but they are not bothering her anymore, her cheeks are calm and not itchy. The next night we see that the rosiness is fading every so slightly. By the end of one week she has clear skin! And now she always really has a rosey glow to her cheeks but they are rarely every scaly or itchy and we still always add the lavender essential oil to her bath water.
This was the huge turning point. If my pediatrician would prescribe something like that and think it is OK, what the hell was in everything else that my kids got a hold of or that I was told was good for them and what about myself and my husband. That is how the blog started. I needed somewhere to organize and store the information I had found. I could do just that with a blog not to mention share what I have found with everyone else who stops by.
Well that is my story, my family is still evolving and learning new things everyday. My children are growing up with these practices and will likely not know any different, I try to help friends and family as much as I can. But I can’t force them to take my advice no matter how much I tell them that it is healthier for them, it will save them money, it will extend the future of the Earth for their children, grandchildren, or even my children. Some of them just don’t get it. And that is ok, I still throw out the information here and there when it is relevant. Maybe one day….Ill just have to wait and see and be patient. At least I know my readers come back here to see what I’ve got to offer or contact me with questions. And that fact makes me feel accomplished. ”
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